The Unsafe Behaviors Inventory (UBI) Tool

A key principle of trauma-informed care is recognizing the importance of improved safety. But how can we measure improved safety as a treatment outcome? Would you like to join an effort to develop a tool to measure unsafe behaviors and help to measure how effective a variety of treatments are in reducing unsafe behaviors?

Trauma Informed California offers the Unsafe Behaviors Inventory as a therapeutic tool for use by providers to help programs focus more specifically on unsafe behaviors reduction as a means of providing trauma-informed care.

Using the Unsafe Behaviors Inventory

What Is the UBI?

The Unsafe Behaviors Inventory (UBI) is a tool designed by Trauma Informed California to measure reductions in a person’s unsafe behaviors. Administered at the beginning of a client’s participation in treatment (“T1”), and again in 8–12 weeks (“T2”), the UBI helps treatment providers and clients themselves to recognize reductions in risky or destructive behaviors. The UBI is available in English and Spanish.

Who should use the UBI?

The UBI should be used by treatment providers delivering trauma-informed, safety-focused, and skill-building services and supports, especially if they believe that those services and supports are likely to result in changes in client behavior over time. Treatment programs need not be clinical, but they should be trauma-informed. We recommend that the pre and post assessments be administered approximately 8–12 weeks apart, with the pre-assessment administered just as treatment is beginning.

Is the UBI Validated?

The UBI has not yet been validated. Trauma Informed California is in the process of validating the tool. The only way you can currently use the UBI is to participate in the pilot study.

I Want to Use the UBI: What Should I Do?

The UBI is available for use with no cost or licensing fee. However, since the UBI is currently in the process of being validated, treatment providers must agree to participate in the pilot study in order to use the tool with clients.

If you are a treatment provider and you want to use the tool, please go to the online provider agreement and read through the terms. All treatment providers participating in the UBI Pilot Study will be asked to obtain informed consent with every client. (For minors, informed consent is a two-step process). Once consent is obtained, treatment providers should administer a baseline assessment (T1). After administering the baseline UBI assessment, providers must complete a brief Provider Input questionnaire. This should only take 5–10 minutes, and gives treatment providers an opportunity to reflect and report on client and provider reactions to the UBI. After 8–12 weeks of treatment (Tx), providers should re-administer the UBI (T2). Providers may give additional feedback if they so choose.

How Do I Administer the UBI?

Once treatment providers have completed the agreement to participate in the UBI Validation Study, they will have access to the links for the necessary consent forms and the UBI, which are exclusively available online. The UBI can be self-administered by clients or administered by the treatment provider. Clients’ confidentiality is protected through an identification code system that enables us to track client changes without the use of client names. Depending on each client’s reading fluency and learning differences, the time required to take the UBI may range from 10 minutes to 30 minutes.

Will We Know the Results of Our Clients’ UBIs?

When a client or treatment provider completes a UBI, the results from the assessment will appear on the screen. Providers may print or save these results as a PDF for comparison with previous or future UBI results. These results will show responses to each question as well as a numerical score which represents the level of risk/unsafe behavior (the higher the number, the more unsafe the behavior). When interpreting the numbers, it is important to note any questions that were skipped, as the number of questions skipped should be subtracted from the total possible score—the tool will not automatically do this.

If treatment providers would like a full report of their program’s aggregate results, they may enter into an agreement for Trauma Informed California to produce reports at the program or agency level, or more nuanced reports that consider pre-post differences disaggregated by race, gender, or other variables.

We Are Ready to Use the UBI: What Do We Do Next?

• Register to be a treatment provider participating in the UBI Open Study here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UBI-Provider_Agreement
• After completing the agreement, an email will be sent with the next steps.

Email questions or comments to info@trauma-informed-california.org